


Those New Chickens

by sunspot (unavoidedcrisis)



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Gen, Void Chickens, new normal - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-15 23:20:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21026405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unavoidedcrisis/pseuds/sunspot
Summary: Many, many things have changed, but some have stayed the same.





	Those New Chickens

**Author's Note:**

  * For [May](https://archiveofourown.org/users/May/gifts).

"Remember when the sky used to be blue?" Leah asks. She's holding the heavy canvas umbrella above their heads while Rose lugs the chicken feed. The corn and the strange, glowing pebbles rattle against the sides of the bucket.

"As blue as the river," Rose recalls. "Is this going to be your nostalgic moment for the week?"

"Yes. Just picture those blue skies instead of this horrible green-grey all the time. And remember when all the trees had leaves?"

"Those were green."

"Proper green though, not this… mess." Rose folds her sleeve over her fingers to turn the key in the lock. She watches Leah as she regards the pallid sky and the unrelenting grimy, drizzle that falls all around them, nearly constantly. Leah's nose wrinkles as she frowns; she shakes off the umbrella, careful not to splatter the dirty water on any exposed skin.

The void chickens swarm around their ankles, their soft, warbling clucks echo strangely in the coop. There's a dimension to their noise that makes it impossible to forget that they're not regular chickens, as if their dusty, charcoal feathers and their ruby-red eyes wouldn't be a dead giveaway.

"Do you think Maru and Penny are okay? It didn't look like it would rain this much today."

"I'm sure they're fine," Rose assures her. "They've got three days of clean water and the opal protection stones, plus all their gear. They were only going to the mines and back to check on the crops. They'll be back before dawn, probably."

"Mmm, remember when you could just grow crops here? And all your fruit trees?"

"Ahh, hey now," Rose says, waving a finger at Leah. "You used up this week's nostalgia on the sky."

Leah sighs. "You're right, I'm sorry."

Rose bumps their shoulders together. "I'm joking. I miss fruit too."

"Peaches," Leah says, tipping her head back and sighing heavily.

"Apples."

"Grapes -- wine!"

Rose groans at the memory. "_Wine_."

One of the roosters, Aloysius, bumps Rose roughly on the ankle, interrupting the trip down memory lane.

"Ack! Sorry! Sorry boy."

Rose shovels another handful of corn and power pebbles onto the coop floor and the void chickens go wild.

Leah crouches to refill one of the water dishes from the purified canteen. Aloysius runs over to check it out. He's the most obnoxious chicken they have right now, pushy and nosy; definitely a lot of character, as Penny would say. Leah tries to push him off, but he's determined. He uses his head to push her elbow up and out of the way so he can get onto her lap. Aloysius sets to work examining her face and neck, tugging at a few loose strings from the collar of her coat.

Rose watches them with a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. These little creatures are very much like the coop full of chickens she had before… before everything went to heck and back. But they're not the same.

Even as Aloysius bops Leah on the chin with his head, leaving dark smudges from its feathers, two of the female chickens, Lace and Silk, start a squabble over who will sit on the glittering egg. Rose steps over to separate them before the can cause damage. Their horns are small, but sharp. She redirects them to their feed and tempers settle as quickly as they flared.

"Little jerks," Rose says with a huffing laugh. They're close enough to chickens that she finds she's attached to them anyway. She gathers up the few eggs they've lain overnight while Leah finishes giving Aloysius all the attention he needs.

Rose wipes at Leah's face with her thumb, but she just moves the ashy markings around.

"I'm covered in it, aren't I?"

Rose pats her arm consolingly. "It's inescapable. If you carry the umbrella back for us, I'll try to cook up something good for dinner." Their stores are running low, but there should be enough to make something decent enough to take their minds off worrying about Penny and Maru.

Once they're safely back to the farmhouse, Leah takes care of their outer clothes in the mudroom. They're very careful not to track any of the black rainwater inside; they can't afford to start replacing floorboards again.

Rose surveys the contents of the pantry. Pickled void eggs are… well, they're nutritious, anyways, and there's enough of them to last through the upcoming winter. Instead of subjecting Leah to another meal of pickled eggs and overcooked, starchy roots, Rose takes a tiny sliver of butter from the deep freeze and scrambles a few eggs over the fire with it.

"Oh wow," Leah says, folding her legs underneath herself as she sinks down onto the cushion at the table.

"Not bad, right?" The void eggs they get now aren't the same as eggs used to be, before all the chickens changed, but that was so long and so many eggs ago that Rose doesn't remember what the difference is anymore.

"We can't tell the others we got into the butter," Leah mumbles around a mouthful of eggs.

"They'll understand. Some days just scream for something special, even now."

Leah frowns at her eggs for a moment, seemingly lost in contemplation. "I like that. Even now, sometimes we need a treat, or a break."

"Exactly," Rose agrees.

The black rain came unexpectedly and killed the plants and trees, destroyed the ground and withered all the crops; it drove people indoors and underground. Everything changed when the black rain started. There's no going back now.

But at night, when it's dark and things are calm for a moment or two, it still sounds like rain on the farmhouse roof.

_The more things change, the more they stay the same._

It's an old adage, something her grandmother probably said once or twice, but for Rose, it's a thought she needs to cling to. She still has her friends, her home, her little treats, and her chickens. New chickens -- definitely weird chickens -- but still her chickens.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to blend a little trick with a little treat. <3 Happy ToT!


End file.
